Baby with reflux and choking
Posts: 13
Has anyone else had to deal with a baby that has acid reflux and have choking spells? I have a 6 week old who is on Emfamil A.R. formula and she has had some choking spells where she turns bright red and we have to suction her throat out and finally she starts crying. I am a nervous wreck with this, any advise or anyone had to deal with this??
not easy!
Posts: 301
Wow that's not easy situation; bless her heart.
I never had issue with choking but a lot with acid reflux with my son and I switch to the Doctor brown bottles and saw a big diference. Hope some other mother can give you better advice and that you can see with her doctor what to do.
reflux
Posts: 1949
We had alot of reflux issues with my 19 month old, but his choking wasn't to the degree you are talking about. Choking is common with reflux, and my son still chokes alot, in my opinion, but I would see your dr. asap if you haven't already. I would also be a nervous wreck! How often does she get those choking spells?
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
Reflux with Choking
Posts: 13
I have been working with my doctor about this issue and my doctor is now sending me on to a childrens GI specialist in Fort Wayne, my daughter has only had this choking really bad twice now, but when she does it, it is very scary. She always acts hungrey on this Enfamil A.R. formula also, to the point that at times she wants to eat 6 oz. not sure if the formula is causing any of her problems, as we have been through many, first I was breastfeeding, then we went to Enfamil Lipid, then Enfamil Lactofree, then Enfamil Gentlease, finally doctor said to try the Enfamil A.R. which should help with the formula coming up. When she does eat and burp she has very wet burps, any other advice appreciated.
Try...
Posts: 258
Have you tried giving her Mylicon or anything like that? Also, my niece had really bad colic.. Not with Acid Reflux or choking, but it was pretty gross. My sister used Gripe Water with her. Gripe Water helped my daughter with hiccups. You can buy regular Gripe Water at any store pretty much now. They make Gripe Water Colic Cure which I think you can get from natural food/product stores. It's made from a type of charcoal, so it can be kind of messy, but it helped my niece A TON!
I also started out nursing
Posts: 1949
I also started out nursing my son, but he would eat so fast, then literally throw it all up within 10 minutes. Around 3 months I started pumping and bottle feeding to see if it would help. He definitely ate slower, and it helped a little but not that much. I just couldn't keep up pumping because he was constantly hungry, so around 6 months I had to start supplementing, and we used Enfamil Alimentum. It didn't really make his reflux better, but it wasn't worse either. After a few months, I decided to try switching to soy because the Alimentum was SO expensive. We did it gradually and he was fine with it. During this whole time we ended up putting him on Zantac 3 times a day to help control the reflux. We didn't dare miss a dose either because he would spit/throw up for the rest of the day. Around 11 months we went from 3 times a day to 2, and had him completely off by his first birthday. Honestly, we found very little that helped other than Zantac. It didn't matter at what angle he was sitting at when he ate or burping him a certain way....he threw up constantly! Mylicon did seem to help his pain, but not the spitting up. We also gave him a pacifier quite a bit to try help keeping his formula in him after eating. Needless to say, it was a VERY long first year!
Have you had an ultrasound on her belly? Our dr. referred us to have an ultrasound checking for a "bulge"
in between the stomach and the small intestine. If the bulge is there, it prevents food from entering, basically forcing it back up resulting in spit up/reflux. We ended up doing a barium swallow also where they actually watched the liquid move through his system and they could see how far it went down before coming back up. In the end, we were able to avoid surgery, but it was a very rough time for all of us. He's now 19 months and healthy as can be....no reflux issues!
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
Choking with reflux
Posts: 13
My daugher does not actually spit up a lot, when they done the upper Gi test where she drank the barium they seen the formula start to come back up, but it never comes all the way out, only half way up, and then it seems like when she has had this choking spell, it is after she has taken a nap, like the formula slowly worked it's way into her throat and she does not know what to do with it and chokes. They also have my daughter on Zantac twice a day, but not sure if it is really doing anything. We have also heard of silent reflux and wondering if that is what is going on with her, why it slowly creeps up. Thank you all for your advise, I really appreciate it all. Joy
theree are other meds they
Posts: 128
theree are other meds they can try if that one does not seem to be working. I would try not to lay her flat at nap time and see how that does.
I feel for you. My daughter
Posts: 128
I feel for you. My daughter would do the cough/choking thing as soon as we layed her flat. For the first three months of her life she was never layed flat, we held her or the car seat worked great. We finally figured out to just slant her crib bed, dahhh this worked till she started rolling . we are first time parents so its all new to us. She was also on medicine for the reflux, and then I finally stopped bf and went to soy formula and she seemed a little less fussy, and we also used cereal and thicken the formula to help keep it down, these things combined did seem to help. Just keep up with your dr, get a confirmed Diagnosis so you do feel better. My little one is almost 2 and is just fine unless we eat lots of spicey foods. She was off meds at 10 months. We did not lay her flat except for a little tummy time and that was on a wedge or pillows so she didnt spit up. They do make special things for babies so you can lay them down, but we just used the car seat, the boppy pillow, swing, bouncer chair.
Good luck and hugs to you
I feel for you!!
Posts: 239
Bekka has had reflux and aspriation issues since birth so I know how you feel. We had swallow studies done at Memorial with Monique Memorial Childrens Rehab Therapy) and found out that she was refluxing and then aspirating it into her lungs which in turn gave her many bouts of pneumonia and many hospital visits. In the end we put her on Prevacid and she has to have all her liquids thickened. You can buy the thickener at the pharmacy (Meijer's had the best deal) She'll be five in Feb and still is on the thickened liquids. Some children may outgrow this but Bekka has CP and her trunk muscles don't work well so that's why she has issues. She doesn't get sick as often but when she does watch out!! She could audition for the Poltergiest movie. She can also make herself sick on command. We always have a towel or bucket with us when we go to the Dr office in case she gets upset and then sick. And every time she coughs I cringe because even a simple little cough can make her get sick.
Melissa
Blessed to be Bekka's Mommy
Our miracle is Four!!
1 lb 5 ozs 13" to 30.6 lbs 38 1/2" Time sure flies!
Which Dr?
Posts: 19
My daughter is seeing a GI doctor in FW also. Who are you being sent too? My daughter had reflux bad as a baby too and now we are dealing with constant upset tummies and food allergies. We are seeing Dr. Gohil. So far he seems like a great dr and I have a friend and her older daughter also sees him and they really like him too. It is a pain to drive down there all the time for testing and such, but we do anything for our kids. Hope all works out and you get some information to help!